1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an image forming system and an image forming apparatus combined with a function of reading optically an image on an original document and a function of forming the image on a recording medium. Furthermore, this invention relates to an image forming apparatus having a function of forming the image on the predetermined recording medium and to an image processing apparatus having a function of reading optically the image on the original document.
2. Description of Related Art
An image forming apparatus for realizing a photocopying function in addition to a scanning function and a printing function has been conventionally built up upon a combination of a host computer, a scanning apparatus for reading optically an image, and a printing apparatus for forming the image on a recording medium. Such an image forming system has been proposed with a display unit for indicating each of statuses of the scanning apparatus and the printing apparatus (see, e.g., Japanese Patent Application Publication No. H08-297,388).
More specifically, the above mentioned Japanese Patent Application Publication No. H08-297,388 discloses the image forming apparatus having a scanning unit for reading optically the image on an original document, a printing unit for forming the image on a recording sheet, and a controller for controlling those scanning unit and printing unit. Particularly in this image forming apparatus, the printing unit and the scanning unit are respectively contained in two separated housings. The scanning unit is arranged with an operation display section for displaying errors and statuses of the scanning unit and the printing unit and for inputting operation of the entire image forming apparatus. The printing unit is arranged with a display section for displaying errors and statuses of the printing unit. With the image forming apparatus of this type, consequently, the unit thus subjecting to the error or status can be easily detected, thereby being able to improve usage.
The image forming apparatus provided with display sections respectively for indicating statuses of the scanning apparatus and the printing apparatus, however, raises a problem that the image forming apparatus cannot be used easily because requiring to confirm the operational status of both the scanning apparatus and the printing apparatus using respective display units when the user wants to use the copying function.
To solve the above problem, an image forming system has been proposed lately in which a scanning apparatus retrieves a status of a printing apparatus to display not only the status of itself but also the status of the printing apparatus on a display unit of the scanning apparatus.
With such the conventional image forming system displaying the status information of the printing apparatus on the display unit of the scanning apparatus, however, the display unit of the scanning apparatus needs to have a display region capable of displaying various statuses of the printing apparatus in addition to a display region for displaying statuses of the scanning apparatus. Therefore, there has been problems with this image forming system, such that the display unit of the scanning apparatus becomes larger in size or requires a complicated structure for displaying pictorial symbols such as, e.g., icon or the like, thereby highly increasing costs.
This invention has been invented in consideration of the above backgrounds, and it is an object of the invention to provide an image forming system and an image forming apparatus capable of displaying appropriately a plurality of apparatus statuses at a low cost. It is another object of this invention to provide an image forming apparatus and an image processing apparatus used for such an image forming system.